A Manual on how to achieve Social Impact

What is social change?

Social changes have to do with how people live and live together, how they interact with each other and with their environment. The Storytelling Centre Foundation contributes to strengthening on an individual and a collective level. We use storytelling in the following areas of social change: to resolve conflicts, to make taboos debatable and to stimulate diversity.

How can you attain social impact with storytelling?

The enemy is the one whose story you don’t know ”. This is a spot on statement by Gene Knudsen Hoffman (1919-2010), certainly in today’s society where we take less and less time to listen to each other’s stories. In fact, stories about each other are often used to stir up fear of the other. As a result, we are slowly but surely entering a society where fear is the prominent factor, rather than having an understanding of each other.

The Storytelling Centre turns this around, so on the basis of stories we can:

bring together specifically people with different backgrounds/identities;

increase the sense of social security of young people from a minority;

bring together young people to increase mutual acceptance and understanding;

by putting listening central next to telling, contribute to self reflection.

Fortunately, more and more organisations are finding out storytelling is a great means to bring people together. Because storytelling is about both the narrator ánd the listener and precisely because it brings them into contact with each other, storytelling projects create bonding. And it is precisely this bonding and connection that is necessary to work towards an understanding and peaceful society.

This introduction to social impact is only a small example of how storytelling contributes to social change. Check our blog posts on social change for more information on how storytelling can transform conflict, taboo situations and diversity issues.

About us

Storytelling Centre is a nationally and internationally renowned training centre in the field of social impact, connection and personal growth and as a festival producer and as a supporter of cultural diversity. Read more about us